40 NOTES ON FISH AND PISHING. 



announcement ran in The Perfect Diurnall : from Monday, 

 May 9th, to Monday, May 16th, 1653 :— 



" The Oompleat Angler, or the Contem- 

 plative Man's Eecreation, being a dis- 

 course of Pish and Fishing, not unworthy 

 the perusal of most Anglers, of 18 pence 



price. Written by Iz. Wa 



printed for Eichard Marriot, to be sold at 

 his shop in Saint Dunstan's Churchyard, 

 Fleet Street." 



It was similarly advertised at the same time in the 

 Mercurius Politicus. A fac-simile of this edition was 

 produced in 1810; and I may mention for the benefit of 

 some' who are not aware of the fact, that another fac- 

 simile of this first edition was published last year by Mr. 

 Elliot Stock, of Paternoster Eow, the very tint and 

 texture of the antique paper being reproduced, with the 

 small pages of fat type, with its long s's, while the art of 

 photography revives the title-page, the quaint head-pieces, 

 the illuminated initials, and the " cuts " of fish. Perfect 

 copies of the original edition are now worth about 25L 

 to 301. The second edition, which appeared in 1655, was 

 almost re-written by the author, and in it a third inter- 

 locutor Auceps, was introduced. Little alteration was 

 made in the third and fourth editions ; but the fifth was 

 much augmented, some of the variations being exceedingly 

 curious, and to it was added the Second Part on Trout and 

 Grayling Fishing, written at Walton's request by his 

 friend, Charles Cotton, of Beresford. This edition is 

 sometimes entitled The Universal Angler, and was the last 

 published in Walton's lifetime, the date being 1676* 



